Locked Together
by temporaryinsanity91
Summary: After a hard mission, Ron takes Kim out for a special night on their fourth anniversary. K plus for language. Special thanks to Tennente and Sharper the Writer for collaborating.


**This story takes place three years since the events of Graduation. Kim and Ron are both in their junior years at Middleton University, which means they are 21 years of age. She and Ron are still fighting against the forces of evil even after Drakken and Shego have gone good. After a recently particularly tough, but successful mission, both Kim and Ron are treating themselves to dinner at Chez Couteaux in Middleton for their fourth anniversary. Kim, however, seems particularly bothered by some particulars about the mission.**

 **Little does she know that Ron has something in store for this particular night...**

* * *

 _(Chez Couteaux, 7:15 pm)_

"Hey. Come back."

She raised her eyes from the cloth napkin in her lap, made greener by both the dark liner and mascara that created a soft dark fringe around them, and the shadows underneath them poorly concealed by makeup. Her soft, turquoise blue sleeveless dress made her red hair look even more fiery, and the natural paleness of her skin seem just slightly more tan and golden, especially in the dim, glowing light of the tiny white candles floating in the vase between them. Ron concluded, not for the first time, that Kim Possible was absolutely stunning.

She'd been determined to finish the mission in time for them to celebrate their fourth anniversary, but even though they had been extremely prepared and cautious, the mission became complicated. The villain, one with a ridiculous name and title she couldn't remember—Heehaw the Hellacious Hillbilly?—had tried to take over her uncle's farm in hopes of using his surveillance, robotic animal and farming technology, and land for his evil master plot. What should have been a simple rescue and capture turned into Ron being scarred for life again by a robotic horse, being held captive for two days with no food or water, and a whole lot of trouble catching the crazy horrible hillbilly, whatever his name was.

"Sorry," Kim said quietly, picking at her nails. They were painted white, as were her toe nails, which she seemed to be staring at now. "I had hoped we'd be more up to this, but I'm kind of exhausted."

"I understand." Ron reached out and took her hand, squeezing it. "I get it, KP. But I know you. That's not what's on your mind. Talk to me."

She shook her head, offering a smile he could tell was forced. "It's nothing, Ron. I'm just... overreacting I guess."

"For the record, you said that, not me." She finally laughed, reaching across the table squeezing his hand. He squeezed it back. "I know better. But if you would just say it, KP, I would be happy to tell you how much you're NOT overreacting."

She sighed. "I just... I hated that that weird hillbilly villain diagnosed us so quickly. He knew that you'd be my weakness, or that I would be yours. He knew that splitting us up would be the easiest way to capture us, and he knew that keeping us apart would be the best way to make sure his plan would succeed. I... don't like feeling like I'm a danger to you, that's all."

"Uh, KP... how many times did I get us captured?"

Kim's face showed how unimpressed she was. "So? How many times did I get us captured?"

"Exactly. Does it matter at this point? Look. I'd rather get locked up in some lair with you any day—hell, every day of the week than be free somewhere without you, or worse, be free somewhere knowing that you're out there fighting bad guys by yourself. And I know you feel the same about me. So don't do this to yourself. Don't blame yourself for how these situations play out."

"I know... I know. I mean, I do. I feel that way about you. There's nobody I'd rather be in a shark tank with, or surrounded by evil robot horses with, or tied up in the dark with."

"Ooh, kinky."

"Har har," Kim said, smacking his arm. She hid a smile, but Ron knew that he'd broken her out of whatever dark place her mind had gone to. Well, mostly.

"Here are your appetizers," the waitress said quietly, trying not to disturb them, but also wanting them to move their joined hands so she could set the hot plates down. Or, so that Ron wouldn't be holding her hand anymore...

"Thank you," Ron said absently. The waitress looked extremely flattered, but said nothing. Kim leveled her with an icy stare. If looks could kill, The waitress would have been vaporized. When she was gone, Ron grinned. "Is there a problem?"

"Yeah. She was... looking at you."

"So? I'm looking at you. And I love what I see, to boot."

Kim laughed again, this time looking away as her cheeks turned light pink. "Thank you." She focused on her food, and Ron reached over and stole a bite. "Hey!" She stole a piece of his in retaliation, and her eyes closed as she put the bit of food in her mouth. "Ohmugawshf," she mumbled around the mouthful.

Ron smiled at her. "Glad you like it," he said simply, grabbing the extra plates and handing her one full of his appetizer.

After dinner, Kim thought about that moment for a long time. Ron held her hand and guided her as they walked along, occasionally moving her around cracks in the sidewalk so she wouldn't lose her balance, since she was lost in thought.

The city was, and still is, struggling to rebuild from the alien invasion that almost wiped them off the face of the earth almost three years ago. During the day, various reconstruction sites rang out with the pounding of hammers, road work, and the beeping of cranes and trucks, solemn reminders of how close humanity had been to complete annihilation. The city owed an enormous debt of gratitude to Ron Stoppable since that day.

The recent financial crisis that occurred at the same time didn't help things either. It especially wrecked the super villain industry, as only Professor Dementor was able to weather the storm. Jack Hench, whom built a multi-billion dollar empire to finance super villains, was in complete the sudden influx of funding, newer, darker more insane villains became new threats that national agencies and GJ combined struggled to keep tabs of. Enter Kim and Ron, the ones that had stopped a whole alien invasion. Their help was highly sought after, and between their classes, and cleaning up Middleton... and America... and the whole planet... they kept pretty busy.

In the past, she had always been the one completely in control, as opposed to Ron. She always felt that she was the one taking care of the boy who once feared the lawn gnome in his mother's backyard. But after the invasion, Kim didn't know what to think. Ron was no longer the coward, the distraction, the sidekick. It was a huge adjustment for both of them. Feeling herself suddenly relieved of caring for Ron, she felt that her focus as well as their whole dynamic had changed dramatically.

She was used to it now, though. In the years since, they had come back into sync, despite her personal troubles financing her education while the Possibles figured out where they would live, and his struggle to find what was next for him. Her family ended up buying a new home and rescuing what little they could from the destroyed Possible home, but that left very little room for them to help her pay for school, and with government financial aid being diverted into reconstruction projects across the country, Kim had gotten a job and negotiated with GJ for a scholarship to get her by the first two years of school. Ron had returned to Japan for the summer, honing his powers and spending a lot of time working on himself before joining her in Middleton University.

Since then, missions only got more complicated and more time consuming, and that had added to her struggles as well. But as her website insisted, she could do anything, and she did. With Ron at her side, she pushed through as always.

Their most recent mission had been particularly brutal. Heehaw Hillbilly (or whatever his name was) had captured and imprisoned her uncle and cousin, and she and Ron had quickly followed. The plan had been simple, really. the way the villain had set up security basically required a distraction. With them separated, it was easy to overwhelm them with security and capture them.

She woke up in the dark with no idea of how much time had passed and no idea of where Ron could be. There was no plan gloating or dramatic plan for their demise. There was just darkness. She was terrified that Ron had been harmed. She didn't know where he was and she couldn't talk to him. At some point, she'd convinced herself that Ron wasn't with her because he was dead, and the dark place her mind went to then was what spurred her to act, sheer rage and revenge pushing her to find an escape route.

She found her uncle first, and got him into the control room to retake control of his systems. She found Joss next, and together they tried to form a plan. The ridiculous villain had almost gone through with his plan, and Kim was still preoccupied with finding and rescuing Ron, who had escaped and was looking for her, and in the chaos, Heehaw had almost succeeded in his plan... something about a robot horse army and evil moonshine.

Kim snorted as she walked, wiping at her nose. Moonshine was evil without the world domination scheme, anyway.

"KP?"

"Huh?"

"You're crying, baby. What's the matter?"

"Oh." She quickly sniffed and wiped at her face with the back of her wrist again . "I'm sorry."

"Kim," Ron said, stopping short and turning to face her.

"I thought I lost you," she finally confessed. "I thought that crazy bastard took you from me and that I would never see you again. I..."

"Aww... KP, I..." Ron brushed the fresh tears from her face, kissing each cheek and her forehead. "I was scared too. They had me in this place and I had no clue how long it had been, or if you had a plan, or anything. But now that it's over, all I can think is that what we have thought all along is true. We're better when we're together."

"I'm my best when I'm with you," she whispered. "I need you, Ron."

"I'm here, KP. I'm not going anywhere. We got him. He's not gonna hurt anyone anymore, and he's not going to get us apart like that again."

She sniffed, curling her fists into his shirt, under his suit jacket, and pressed herself against him. "Okay," she whispered. "I love you, Ron."

His arms went around her, hugging her close to his body. He pressed a kiss to her hair. "I love you too, you know. We've been through a lot, KP, but as long as I'm yours and you are mine, we've always turned out alright." He loosened his embrace, placing one hand on her hip while the other gently rubbed her back. He kissed her forehead and looked into her eyes, smiling. "Come on, KP. I have something for you."

It was then that Kim looked around and noticed that Ron had guided her to the entrance of Middleton Park. She'd volunteered there some weekends during high school, but since she graduated, she hadn't had much time to see what had changed since the invasion. The trees that had been downed in one section of the park, had been removed and replaced with a beautiful memorial to the lives lost and the persons injured. The wall where Josh Mankey had once shown her his art had been overgrown with ivy and flowering vines,and the stone path that went around it and led to the lake had spots of grass growing between them. She looked up at Ron, curious. "Why are we in the park?"

Ron grinned. "You'll see. Come on!" He led her toward the lake, and they skip-hopped across the stones, over the grass to the path at the edge of the lake. The path sat at the top of a hill, and they both silently contemplated the sun setting over the lake, brilliant orange, pink and lavander coloring set the lake on fire. A short walk away, there was a bridge that crossed over the stream that emptied into the lake.

The bridge was made of wood, the wood worn and stained by years of weather. In between the wood railings there was a long, chain link fence that was attached just after the invasion. "Remember this, KP?"

"Sure. I mean, it has changed some after the invasion. A lot, really. So much has changed in this park. But this bridge has been around as long as I can remember, and we've been here a couple of times together. Actually, last time we were here, your belt loop got caught in a piece of wire...?"

Ron glared as he saw a tiny smirk pulling at her lips. "Hilarious. I thought that went in the vault of silence!"

"It did," Kim said with a slightly bigger smile. "Why were you asking about this?"

He smiled and led her toward the middle of the bridge. Overlooking the lake, the trees' reflections became dark shadows as the water reflected the subdued pinks and purples, and the bright neon orange of the sky as the sun faded. In the distance, little neon lights flickered as fireflies danced through the trees, their lights reaching the reeds at the edge of the water and reflecting in the lake's shadows as well.

"This is beautiful," she whispered.

Ron kissed her cheek in response. "We've been together since we were kids, and I never in a million years thought this day would come. It's our fourth anniversary, KP."

She turned to him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and resting her hands behind his neck. With a smile, she said, "really? I kind of always knew it would. I was in denial."

"Is that what you call it?"

"Seriously. Josh Mankey, and that Japanese transfer guy, and even Eric, they were all just placeholders. The whole time, there was just some part of me that was comparing them to you. Clearly, nobody measured up."

Ron grinned and circled his arms around her waist. "You know it, KP. This bon-diggety babe has the essential Ronness that no one can ever imitate."

She giggled. "Whatever you say, Your Ronness."

"Yeah? Well then I say we just stay like this until our skin sags and our driving licenses are taken away."

She grinned at him. "They already took your driver's license, Ron."

"Okay well, you know what? It's not my fault that that car had the wheel on the wrong side of the road—and we were being chased by evil singing robots! What was I supposed to do, stop at the yellow light? They should have been thanking me!"

"Ron, I was just teasing you."

"I know. But my objection still stands!"

"It's noted," she said with another giggle. "Now tell me why you brought us here." Her smile fell away when he reached into his pocket and retrieved a small box. Tears instantly poured from her eyes, and Ron startled when he saw her face.

"KP, what—what's wrong. Oh—no, baby, it's not that kind of box. Just look at it."

Slightly embarrassed and feeling more than a little bit awkward, she took the box from his hand and opened it. There was a lock inside. Upon further inspection, she saw that that there were words on it. Tears welled in her eyes again as she read the inscription:

 _Kim and Ron_  
 _true love set us free_  
 _2007- forever_

"KP, we had a lot of messed up things happen to us, and we did a lot of screwed up things to each other." Ron remembered the morning they talked about her feelings, when she told him she wasn't sure how she felt about his newfound skills. The argument that followed left him dazed and hurt, and he knew that she felt the same. She didn't accompany him to the airport. He thought he would spend two months in Japan wondering if he would come home to a girlfriend, or if everything he had with her was ruined because he finally wanted to make himself better. In the end, Kim came to him, and they spent two days together making up before she had to go back home. He thought it was the best weekend of his life. Until now, anyway. "We fight and we make up, and we save the world, and those are only ever going to be things that I want with my best friend, with my partner. Those are only things I'm every going to want with you. I love you."

She remembered the moment she saw him come through the door, ready to save her. She was on an Alien ship in outer space. Truly, He would go anywhere after her. More tears spilled from her eyes. "I love you too," she said, throwing her arms around him and pressing her lips to his. There in the growing darkness, they clicked the lock around a link in the fence, and then Ron handed her the key. With a smile, she threw the key into the river. She watched as it sank quickly into oblivion, and she realized that Ron was right. From the moment she admitted to herself that she would go to the ends of the earth for him simply because she loved him, there had been weight that lifted from her mind and from her heart. Giving herself to him wholly to him was the only thing that truly made her feel free. She never wanted that feeling to end.

This time, when she turned to face Ron again, he was holding a different box, and was kneeling. Shifting, he pushed one leg out and rested his foot down, so that he was on one knee. Then he grinned up at her. "You can freak out now."

* * *

 **This story was a collab between me and Sharper. Find me, on FFn and Wattpad at** _ **temporaryinsanity91**_ **and find Sharper on FFn and Deviant Art at** _ **Sharper the Writer**_ **. Special thanks to Chris for creating Heehaw the Hellacious Hillbilly. He's a good friend and we both think he should start a reaction channel on YouTube xD Check him out on out on Deviant Art at** _ **tennente.**_ **Thanks for reading. Let us know what you think!**

 **Legal stuff:**

 **Any recognizable Kim Possible characters and settings are created by Schooley and McCorkle and (c) by Disney. No profit is being made from posting this story, but the plot and any OCs do belong to us so please contact before copying or translating all or part of this story.**

 **Thanks for stopping by!**

 **see you soon,**

 **temporary insanity xx**


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